Printing plates typically include an image area that is either capable of forming or not forming a printed imaged when the plate is mounted on a press cylinder of a printing press. The images are formed on the printing plate by one of many methods known in the art including directly imaging the image on the printing plate Typically, multiple printing plates are used in a printing operation, wherein each plate prints a specific color on the printed substrate. Each plate is registered to its corresponding press cylinder via one or more features punched in the plate.
Current plate imaging and punching systems are separated from each other or made in a way that can make it difficult to punch a plate accurately. One way that has been used to overcome this problem and ensure that the plate is in the correct position when it is punched is to mark the plate where it is to be punched. Others pre-punch their plates but this may have the disadvantage of not being able to fit in the available space and therefore complicating the architecture of the machine. Still others have staggered their punch registration pins so that larger plates can not contact the same pins as smaller plates do, but this may have the disadvantage that if both small and large plate use the same punch holes, one can not use fixed position punches (i.e. the punches would have to move into the plate direction to compensate for the amount of stagger the pins have). Many of these methods of punching a plate also cause damage to the plate.
There is a need for an improved apparatus and method to image and punch recordable media such as printing plates.